Delaware: Delaware is a small state wedged between Philadelphia and the Atlantic Ocean. We are home to Dupont, Hercules, AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals and Montell. Northern Delaware, in an area perhaps 12 miles by 20 miles, has more than 2,000 members of the American Chemical Society. For a map, see Delaware map. For a visual tour of the Lammot DuPont Laboratory (CAUTION: 1.7 MB!), see LDL tour.

Overview: Our research centers on the enantioselective synthesis of complex, physiologically active natural products. To this end, we are interested in developing new organic reactions, as illustrated by our current work with intramolecular alkylidene carbene insertion. We are also interested in using computational organometallic chemistry to understand catalysis, as exemplified by our recent analysis of diastereoselectivity in rhodium mediated intramolecular C-H insertion. For an overview of our current approaches to computationally-based catalyst design, see computational catalyst design. Using this same computational approach, we have developed a model for zirconium mediated cyclization that effectively predicts both the kinetic and the thermodynamic product from intramolecular cyclozirconation of a diene.

Resume (pdf): D. F. Taber

For recent publications from the Taber group, see: Recent Publications

If you enjoy our weekly ORGANIC HIGHLIGHTS, share the link with your colleagues. The first four years of this column are out in book form from Wiley, Organic Synthesis: State of the Art 2003-2005, and Organic Synthesis: State of the Art 2005-2007, the latter of which includes author and reaction indices covering both volumes.

For a 12-slide PowerPoint presentation on global warming, see Warming.ppt

Courses:

Chemistry 331: For course information, see Chem 331.

Chemistry 332: For course information, see Chem 332.

Chemistry 334: For course information, see Chem 334.

Chemistry 635: For course information, see Chem 635.

Spectroscopy Problems: As part of the undergraduate organic course, we enjoy using spectroscopic data sets to deduce the structure of organic unknowns. Two interesting problems are posted at #1 and #2. For a growing set of integrated problems (starting material, conditions, spectroscopic data for the product) with a separate file for the answers see Chem 334. For a diverse collection of problems, detailed instructions at the undergraduate level on how to solve them, as well as the necessary data tables, see Organic Spectroscopic Structure Determination: A Problem Based Learning Approach, available from Oxford University Press (ISBN = 978-0-19-531470-0). For detailed instructions on solving the problems, see SpecBook.

Experiments for the Organic Teaching Lab: Organic Chemistry Laboratory: Standard and Microscale Experiments, by Bell, Clark, Taber and Rodig, available from Cengage (ISBN 0-03-029272-7) [for the answers to the problems in Chapter 12, Chapter 13 and Chapter 14, see answers] includes several new experiments that our students have found to be particularly appealing. For more, see Organic Chem Lab. The purpose of this site is to serve as a clearinghouse for new experiments that are suitable for the undergraduate laboratory course. Even if your experiment is already published, for instance in the Journal of Chemical Education, we would encourage you to post it here also. We hope that this site will serve two purposes: to share useful new procedures with each other, and to let the enthusiastic instructor know what already has been done.

3-D on the Web! You really can see true 3-D on the web. Give it a try at Stereo.

Latter Day Saint Student Association: An undergraduate group devoted to religious study, socializing and community service. For more information, see LDSSA

The entire contents of the pages indexed here Copyright 2002-2006 Douglass F. Taber

U-Discover! The University of Delaware

UD Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

UD Organic Chemistry Division.

Messages? I can be reached at Douglass F. Taber